"MANY A NIGHTINGALE PERCHED GIDDILY, ON BLOSSOMY TWIG STILL SWINGING FROM THE BREEZE."-COLERIDGE.

"MOST MUSICAL, MOST MELANCHOLY BIRD."-MILTON.

[JAMES I., 1374-1437, author of "The King's Quhair" (or Book), and "Christis Kirk on the Greene."]

"SOME GIVE FOR MERIT AND SOME FOR MEEDS; SOME, WARLDLY HONOUR TO UPHIE (UPHOLD)."-DUNBAR.

"ALL, AS THEY SAY, THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD."-DRYDEN.

"PRIDE, OF ALL OTHERS THE MOST DANGEROUS FAULT, PROCEEDS FROM WANT OF SENSE, AS WANT OF THOUGHT."-ROSCOMMON.

GIFTS ARE THE BEADS OF MEMORY'S ROSARY."-L. E. L.

GOOD GIVING AND ILL GIVING.

And gifts from some may na man treit :

In Giving suld Discretion be.

Some is for gift sae lang required,

While that the craver be sae tired,
That, ere the gift delivered be,
The thank is frustrate and expired:

In Giving suld Discretion be.

Some in his giving is so large
That all o'erladen is his barge;

Then vice and prodigalitie

There of his honour does discharge :

In Giving suld Discretion be.

Some to the rich gives his gear
That might his giftis weel forbear,
And, though the poor for fault* suld die,
His cry not enters in his ear:

In Giving suld Discretion be.

Some gives to them can ask and plain,†
Some gives to them can flatter and feign,

Some gives to men of honestie,
And halds all janglers at disdain :

In Giving suld Discretion be.

[WILLIAM DUNBAR, of whose "bold music" Langhorne speaks, and whom Thomas Campbell pronounced "a poet of a high order," was born about 1465, died about 1530. His works, of which the principal are "The Thistle and the Rose," and "The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins," have been edited by David Laing, and criticised, with true appreciation, by Alexander Smith, in his "Dreamthorpe."]

RICH GIFTS WAX POOR WHEN GIVERS PROVE UNKIND."-SHAKSPEARE.

"IF THOU HAST FLATTERY IN THY NATURE, OUT WITH 'T; OR SEND IT TO A COURT, FOR THERE 'TWILL THRIVE."-OTWAY.

"THERE IS NO STERNER MORALIST THAN PLEASURE."-BYRON.

THE HAPPY SEASON OF LIFE.

9

PLEASURE BLENDS WITH EVERY PAIN.

ENOMOUS thorns, that are so sharp and keen,
Bear flowers, we see, full fresh and fair of hue:
Poison is also put in medicine,

And unto man his health doth oft renew:
The fire that all things eke consumeth clean
May hurt and heal: then, if that this be true,
I trust some time my harm may be my health,
Since every woe is joinèd with some wealth.
[Sir THOMAS WYATT, 1503-1542. His poems have been edited by Mr.
Robert Bell.]

“AND SUCH IS HUMAN LIFE; SO GLIDING ON, IT glimmers like a meteor, and is gone!”—s. rogers.

"REFLECT THAT LIFE, LIKE EVERY OTHER BLESSING, DERIVES ITS VALUE FROM ITS USE ALONE."-JOHNSON.

THE HAPPY SEASON OF LIFE.

SAW the little boy,

In thought how oft that he
Did wish of God, to 'scape the rod,
A tall young man to be:

The young man eke that feels
His bones with pains opprest,
How he would be a rich old man,

To live and lie at rest:

The rich old man that sees
His end draw on so sore,
How he would be a boy again,
To live so much the more.

Whereat full oft I smiled, To see how all these three, “we live in dEEDS, NOT YEARS; IN THOUGHTS, NOT BREATHS."-BAILEY.

"LIFE IS BUT THOUGHT; SO THINK I WILL THAT YOUTH AND I ARE HOUSE-MATES STILL."-COLERIDGE.

FOR, NOTHING COVETING, WE NOTHING WANT."-DRYDEN.

"IN AGE TO WISH FOR YOUTH IS FULL AS VAIN, AS FOR A YOUTH TO TURN A CHILD AGAIN."-DENHAM.

"BEAUTY'S LOVELY BAIT, THAT DOTH PROCURE

UNA AND THE LION.

II

Truss up thy pack and trudge from me,
To every little boy;

And tell them thus from me:

Their time most happy is,
If to their time they reason had

To know the truth of this.*

[HENRY HOWARD, Earl of Surrey, born 1517, executed by order of Henry VIII., January 21, 1546–7. (See J. A. Froude's "History of Engvol. iv.) He wrote numerous sonnets and love poems, and translated part of Virgil's "Æneid."]

land,

"EYES NOT Down-dropt, nor over bright, but FED WITH THE clear-pointed flame of chasTITY."-TENNYSON.

"HER EYES AS STARS, OF TWILIGHT FAIR; LIKE TWILIGHT, TOO, HER DUSKY HAIR."-WORDSWORTH.

UNA AND THE LION.+

NE day, nigh weary of the irksome way,
From her unhasty beast she did alight;
And on the grass her dainty limbs did lay
In secret shadow, far from all men's sight;
From her fair head her fillet she undight,
And laid her stole aside: Her angel's face,
As the great eye of heaven, shinèd bright,
And made a sunshine in the shady place; +
Did never mortal eye behold such heavenly grace.

It fortunèd, § out of the thickest wood
A ramping lion rushèd suddenly,
Hunting full greedy after salvage blood:
Soon as the royal virgin he did spy,

With gaping mouth at her ran greedily,

* Youth (so says the poet) would be the happiest season of life, if only the

young had sense enough to know it.

From "The Faery Queen," book i., canto iii.

The reader should note the exquisite beauty of this line.

§ It happened.

GREAT WARRIORS OFT THEIR RIGOUR TO REPRESS."-SPENSER.